Human Relations with Nature Shrink in the Distance between the Past and the Present.

“You are studying this lake? This puddle of water, you are studying. But why? What is left of it to study? It is just a matter of years that this lake will soon disappear.” One of the Bedouins around Lake Mariout told me this as I was about to start interviewing the fishermen in the area. I tried explaining that studying it and documenting its changes before they disappear is essential. His cynical attitude made me stop and analyze his view. As I continued my fieldwork over the coming months, I began losing sight of the places I was studying, as they were changing and shifting much faster than my research. This made me reflect on the temporality of the waterscapes and how this affects the surrounding communities and their livelihoods. Lake Mariout is at the intersection of infrastructural development connecting to Alamein, the newly constructed city, through newly built roads, bridges, and the high-speed train. These projects promise the area's development while draining the lake and displacing people’s livelihoods.

I shifted my understanding of water’s importance from Toni Morrison’s quote, “All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was,” to the shrinking lake becoming just a mould, where ways of life converge. As human pressure intensifies, the lake shrinks, and its waters no longer hold memory. Yet, memory persists in the social bonds formed around the lake. In this presentation, I will discuss how the fragile nature of lakes and their changes affect the sense of time and space, as the rush for “development” contrasts with the rush to “survive,” reflecting the vulnerabilities of the communities living in these shrinking waterscapes.